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Editor’s Note: This post is the first of a series written by Stephanie Chueh, summer intern extraordinaire. Don’t let her modesty fool you, she is extremely smart and I am looking forward to having her on the team! She will be writing a weekly post about her experiences learning SEM and internet marketing. Welcome Stephanie!

Stephanie Chueh

Hi! My name is Stephanie Chueh, and I’m a high school student at Community High School. In college, I’m going to double major in marketing and engineering. I love writing, watching movies, math, finding out about new things, perusing Fortune magazine, and reading in general. This summer, I am going to start interning at Your Search Advisor, and I can’t wait to get started.

I am very interested in having a career in marketing, and these days, internet marketing has become a much more important component of every company’s marketing strategy. At this internship, I anticipate getting to know more about search engine optimization, networking, marketing strategies, advertising potential with social media such as Facebook, and other exciting things happening in the internet and media worlds.

I will be learning a lot in the coming weeks, and I’m really looking forward to sharing what I learn with you!

This nugget was excerpted from an email exchange with a friend. I’ve often thought this but never put the words on paper (or pixels) until now. I thought it was worth sharing:

When I look 5-10 years ahead in SEO, choosing quantity over quality is a move in the wrong direction, if you ask me. There are going to be more competitors and more search-friendly platforms for websites. Basic crawler accessibility will be web dev 101. The truly successful SEO will approach search from marketing perspective, not the other way around.

That’s why it’s called Search Engine Marketing.

Penny for your thoughts? Literally. Stop by the Brickyard. I’ve got a mug full of ‘em.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted about the inner workings of Your Search Advisor. Of course, by “inner workings” I mean the various thoughts rattling around in my head. Here are some updates I’ve been meaning to pass along to you, dear reader.

Finally Back in Ann Arbor!

As of today, my wife Elizabeth and I are Ann Arbor residents once again. After the first two years flew by (1 in Ann Arbor, 1 in Flint), her residency program is entering its final 6 months back at the U of M hospital. We’re both excited to be back in town and closer to good restaurants, friends, cool parks, and my office.

We’re so close to the action that I can start commuting by bike again. Call me “green” if you will, but I do it primarily for the fresh air and convenience. I can ride the 1.6 miles to work in under 9 minutes versus 17 minutes of driving, looking for a parking spot and walking the 3-4 blocks from the “free” parking. Oh, and it’s not very fun on rainy days (like today). I was soaked!

Website Redesign

Continuing the “green” theme (albeit for different reasons), I’m about two weeks away from launching a revamped version of YourSearchAdvisor.com. Ross Johnson is putting together an awesome design concept and we hope to have it up by the end of June.

Here’s a sneak peak of the new logo which will give you an idea of the direction we’re heading:

New Monthly Client Newsletter

Any day now I’ll be sending out the first issue of a new monthly (to start) client newsletter. There’s so much happening in the Search Engine Marketing industry that I’m finding it harder and harder to keep all of my clients up to date on the developments that matter to them. More importantly, I want to make sure they know how each development impacts them and what they can/should do about it.

It’s not just for clients though. Anybody can sign up here:

You will also have the option to sign up for a “Breaking News” email that I will only send if something happens that requires your immediate attention.

Last Call for Internship Applications

I am looking for an intern this summer to help with some research and client prep work. It’s a great way to learn the basics of Search Engine Marketing and help out on some actual client work.

If you or anybody you know wants to learn more about it, here’s the blog post with more details.

Your marketing textbooks were written last century. Today’s marketing strategies require tight integration with search engines and social media. I am seeking an intern that wants to learn and apply Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies and tactics in real-life situations with real clients.

You will learn and contribute to our clients’ success in:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): better search rankings = more traffic = more $$
• Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising: efficient, effective advertising when done right…a train wreck when mismanaged
• Website Analytics: if you can measure it, you can improve it
• Blogging and Content Creation: finding your voice in the crowd
• Social Media: people + relationships = communication

Requirements (more like guidelines, really):

Andrew Miller is a Search Engine Marketing consultant in Ann Arbor, MI. Prior to starting YSA, Andrew was the in-house SEO Manager at CarMax, a Fortune 500 retailer based in Richmond, VA. Current clients rely on him for customized, integrated online marketing strategies that include Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click Advertising, Social Media Strategy, and Website Analytics Implementation.

Want to connect? Try Twitter (@AndrewCMiller), Facebook, or LinkedIn. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Google Co-Founder Larry Page was back here in Ann Arbor this past weekend to deliver the commencement speech at the University of Michigan.

I never knew that the “link graph” concept behind Google started as a dream. According to Page, he awoke one night and scribbled down some ideas. The story was motivational and interesting. More importantly, the long-term implications have yet to be fully realized.

You know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night with a vivid dream? And you know how, if you don’t have a pencil and pad by the bed to write it down, it will be completely gone the next morning?

Well, I had one of those dreams when I was 23. When I suddenly woke up, I was thinking: what if we could download the whole web, and just keep the links and… I grabbed a pen and started writing! Sometimes it is important to wake up and stop dreaming. I spent the middle of that night scribbling out the details and convincing myself it would work. Soon after, I told my advisor, Terry Winograd, it would take a couple of weeks to download the web — he nodded knowingly, fully aware it would take much longer but wise enough to not tell me. The optimism of youth is often underrated! Amazingly, I had no thought of building a search engine. The idea wasn’t even on the radar. But, much later we happened upon a better way of ranking webpages to make a really great search engine, and Google was born. When a really great dream shows up, grab it!

The passage above appears begins at 5:45 in this video:

Check out the full transcript, the video on YouTube, or the official Google Blog post.